@Robby:
The Great Divide wasn't bad perse. As a "journey along the way" episode showing off the inhabitants of the world its okay, and compared to the episodes that had come before it it wasn't too off the mark, and it wasn't outright bad in terms of production quality or anything. But the characters were a bit obnoxious in it, it didn't need to be a full episode, and compared to the rest of the series as a whole it was certainly the weakest.
That or maybe the beach episode in season 3, even with its attempts at character development.
It's funny. Aside from some bits and clips of the early episodes, these are the only two episodes I watched for more than a few minutes, and it was the tail end of each. Maybe that's why I was so reluctant to watch the show for so long since I caught the stinkers (though, I don't know, the Beach episode seemed pretty good, granted I didn't know anything about the characters).
Anyway, I just finished episode 12
! But before I get to that, some quick thoughts on the other episodes:
! Warriors of Kyoshi - Kind of a bizarrely paced episode and while I'm all for a good moral against sexism, the way they handled it felt way too blunt. One of my least favorites.
King of Omashu - A season highlight for me. The King/Bumi was just a hoot.
Imprisoned - A darn good take on peasant-uprising trope. And George Takei is awesome.
Winter Solstice two-parter - Another season highlight. Very good plot episodes. Though I'm not sure why they classified it as a two-parter.
The Waterbending Scroll - Good character episode for Katara. Not much else to say I guess.
Jet - A good character episode for Sokka. I totally saw the twist of Jet being an immoral a-hole coming a mile away, but it was still good.
! And now for the two big ones:
! The Great Divide - Not a terrible episode, but yes, a very conventional and cliched one. And the way the conflict is resolved is pretty dumb. But if this the worse the show has to offer, than it's in good shape.
! The Storm - So this is the one that everyone says is really good and the one that hooked them onto the show and…yeah, it is really good. I guess I can't say it hooked me since, well, technically I'm already hooked since I was already committed to watching this thing the whole way through (unless, for some reason, I was just really bored by it or just couldn't stand it). But yes, it is good. One of the best so far. It does a great job of building Aang's and Zuko's character and does it in a very creative way.
! So yeah, I'm definitely enjoying this show. Do I love it? Hmm, well, unfortunately no, I can't quite say that just yet. I mean, maybe part of it is that I've already spoiled myself on quite a few things, so I already know where a lot of characters are heading and what ultimately happens to them. So I guess it can't have quite the same "oomph" as with someone who is totally unfamiliar. But I'm still watching and I'm still interested in seeing the details of what happens along the way.